The Cultural Studies program offered by The University of Edinburgh enables you to study cultural phenomena, practices and texts at an advanced level, critically engaging with theories and methodologies of transdisciplinary cultural research.

Overview

The Cultural Studies programme offered by The University of Edinburgh supports a range of research topics in visual and urban cultural studies, with a particular interest in: place and memory; spatial violence and urban disintegration; post-socialist cities of Eastern Europe; visual and semiotic landscapes; materiality and spatiality of writing; book space and architectures of reading; photography and visual knowledges; image-text-theory; experimental publishing; curatorial practices and multimodality in representation of research.

Your project will benefit from the diverse research expertise of staff from the Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture (ESALA), from our collaborative exchanges with academic colleagues and research students across the University, and a broad range of contacts with local and international research networks, cultural and heritage institutions and archives.

The PhD is a major work of independent research, preparing you for a future in academic scholarship or a research career at cultural and heritage institutions or government organisations. The degree is obtained by research and presentation of thesis of 80,000-100,000 words followed by a viva voce examination. As a student, you will have two supervisors with whom you will work closely throughout the research period. In the first year of your studies, you will be required to take a research skills and methods course selected in consultation with your superiors.

In addition to regular meetings with your supervisors, you will participate in postgraduate seminars and conferences and have opportunities to experiment with publications and curatorial projects.

Facilities

Postgraduate facilities include a common room and computing facilities at Minto House and the Maltings.

In addition to the Main University Library students have access to the resources of: the National Library of Scotland, Scottish Studies Library and Digital Archives, Language and Humanities Centre, Edinburgh College of Art Library, the City Libraries, the Royal Commission for Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland.

Detailed Programme Facts

Starting in 2020-09-14 00:00:00

Good news: You can apply for this programme anytime before its start date.

Starting in 2021-01-13 00:00:00

Good news: You can apply for this programme anytime before its start date.

Starting in 2021-04-01 00:00:00

Good news: You can apply for this programme anytime before its start date.

Always verify the dates on the programme website.

More details:

We encourage you to apply at least one month prior to entry so that we have enough time to process your application

Programme Structure

All of our research students benefit from ECA’s interdisciplinary approach and all are assigned two research supervisors. Your second supervisor may be from another discipline within ECA, or from somewhere else within the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences or elsewhere within the University, according to the expertise required. On occasion more than two supervisors will be assigned, particularly where the degree brings together multiple disciplines.

You will be required to take the research skills and methods course selected in consultation with your supervisors.

In addition to regular meetings with your supervisor, you will participate in postgraduate seminars and conferences and have opportunities to experiment with publications and curatorial projects.

English Language Requirements

Minimum required score:

100

The TOEFL iBT® measures your English-language abilities in an academic setting. The test has four sections (reading, listening, speaking, and writing), each with a score range of 0-30, for a total score range of 0-120.

Minimum required score:

7

The IELTS – or the International English Language Test System – tests your English-language abilities (writing, listening, speaking, and reading) on a scale of 1.00–9.00. The minimum IELTS score requirement refers to which Overall Band Score you received, which is your combined average score. Read more about IELTS.